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PAGES news • Vol 20 • No 1 • February 2012

The  untimely  death  of  Dr  Mohammed Umer Mohammed, during fieldwork in 

the Afar on 27 November 2011, is a griev-ous  loss  to  his  numerous  colleagues  and friends in the international community of environmental geoscientists. Mohammed was Associate Professor at the Department of Earth Sciences, Addis Ababa University, for 19 years, where he initiated and led the Paleo-environment  and  Paleoanthropol-ogy  Program.  He  served  as  a  member  of the PAGES Scientific Steering Committee, as co-leader of the PAGES Africa 2k Work-ing Group, and of PAGES Science Focus 4 (Past  Human-Climate-Ecosystem  Interac-tions).  He  was  a  dedicated,  inspiring  and internationally  recognized  researcher,  a truly  dedicated  mentor  and  educator,  an ambassador  for  African  science  and  for PAGES,  and  a  much-valued  friend  to  his students and colleagues.

Mohammed  was  born  on  22  June 1959  in  Robe,  a  small  town  in  the  Arsi Mountains,  east  of  Ethiopia’s  Rift  Valley. He  graduated  from  Addis  Ababa  Univer-sity with a BSc degree in Geology in 1981, and  taught  at  Asmara  University,  Eritrea, for five years, before beginning research at the University of Aix-Marseille III. His PhD, on  the  vegetation  history  of  the  eastern Ethiopian  highlands,  was  completed  in 1992, despite the difficulties of undertak-ing  fieldwork  during  a  period  of  political transition.  His  subsequent  research  fo-cused largely on the environmental histo-ry of Ethiopia, where he made significant contributions to knowledge of that coun-try’s  place  in  the  environmental,  cultural and human evolutionary history of Africa. Mohammed  took  a  full  part  in  academic administration,  as  Associate  Dean  of  the Faculty of Science of Addis Ababa Univer-sity  from  2005  to  2007,  and  was  recently elected a member of the University Coun-cil.

Mohammed was a founding member of  the  East  African  Quaternary  Research Association, and was elected its President in February 2011. He was a member of the executive  committee  of  the  International Association  of  Geomorphologists,  and  of the  steering  committee  of  the  Hominid Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project, sup-ported  by  the  International  Continental Scientific  Drilling  Program.  He  was  a  key partner  in  the  current  Ethiopian  Lakes 

imitable style, and a vast store of amusing stories.  Only  a  week  before  he  died,  Mo-hammed  clearly  enjoyed  hosting  a  lunch party at his home for Ethiopian and inter-national  friends. That  was  just  after  field-work at the Dendi lakes, where he told me that he had now achieved two of his three “dream lakes”, the others being Garba Gu-racha in the Bale Mountains, for which he published the vegetation history, and the sacred lake on Mt Ziqwala, which he held realistic hopes of investigating.

Hard as it is for us, his friends and col-leagues,  to  know  that  we  will  not  share more adventures with him,  it must be so much  harder  for  Hawsa,  his  wife,  and  his two  young  children  to  have  lost  such  an inspiring  husband  and  father.  His  legacy will  be  for  us,  his  friends,  colleagues  and students, to continue the research that he so much valued, and to further the train-ing of those who would follow in his path.

Paleoenvironmental  Reconstruction  Proj-ect,  led  from  Cologne  University.  These, and  many  other  international  scientific projects  in  Ethiopia,  owe  Mohammed a  debt  of  gratitude:  he  was  an  essential and  indefatigable  colleague,  making  use of his wide-ranging network of friends to smooth the path of fieldwork and confer-ences,  working  with  Ethiopian,  French, American,  German  and  British  partners with  tireless  energy,  great  good-humor, and boundless enthusiasm.

Personally, I owe much to Mohammed for  18  years  of  fruitful  collaboration  and close  friendship, during which we shared many  memorable  times  –  coring  Rift  val-ley  lakes,  surveying  Lake  Tana,  exploring Mechara  caves,  and  fieldwork  on  horse-back  in  the  mountains  of  south-western Ethiopia. Without his skills and enterprise, the work would have been almost impos-sible,  and  certainly  far  less  enjoyable.  He was  a  marvelous  raconteur,  with  an  in-

Euology: Mohammed Umer MohammedHenry F. Lamb

Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, UK; hfl@aber.ac.uk

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Mohammed Umer, PAGES SSC member 2006-20011